Take Me Higher
by GaleSynch
Summary: AU: In a world where Hatake Kakashi had died and Uchiha Obito lived—"Just you wait, Kakashi, I'll be a shinobi of your caliber. I won't be a crybaby anymore." NaruSasu/FemSasu.


**Take Me Higher**

**Summary: AU**, In a world where Hatake Kakashi had died and Uchiha Obito lived—"Just you wait, Kakashi, I'll be a shinobi of your caliber. I won't be a crybaby anymore."

**Pairings:** No idea- undecided. Suggestions?

**Chapter Summary:** Obito obtains the Sharingan and Mangekyou, after witnessing Kakashi's death. His life till the attack of the Nine-Tails.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. If I did, the Senju and Uchiha clan wouldn't have met their end (and there'd be a lot of Senju-Uchiha crossbred running around).

**Character Ages/Facts:**

_Obito_  
- I know Obito's name means "neck" but since it's such an uncool meaning for such a cool character, his name in this fic means "orbit". The Japanese pronunciation of English's orbit.  
- At the start of the story, he is eleven. Second part (from the divider), he's twelve. Third part (Kyuubi's attack), he is sixteen. I'm making him younger in this fic just in case the ObiFemSasu pairing becomes real.

_Minato_  
- First part: he is 23 years old, and his oldest son, Menma is already born (Itachi Uchiha is the same age as Menma and is born a few months earlier). Second part: 24 and Third part: 28 years old, and deceased.  
- Kushina is the same age, deceased.  
- To be noted, he is the son of Senju Tsunade and though he goes by his father's name, he is ocassionaly referred to as Senju.

_Menma_  
- To those who had read my other Naruto fics, they would know that this boy is not an OC but merely a character from the newest movie "Road To Ninja" and is Naruto's dimensional counterpart who is his older brother in this story.  
- First Part: newborn, Second Part: 12-months old, Third Part: 5 years old. Itachi is the same age, just a few months earlier.

* * *

**First Arc: Fate's Game.**

**Chapter 1: A Twist of Fate.**

Even with his newly awakened Sharingan, Uchiha Obito still thought he was a failure, still a coward and a crybaby.

He could only watch, eyes wide with horror as the boulders fell, as Kakashi, tired and dazed and wounded, glanced up, seeming to be in awe at the falling, impending doom.

_Move_, he thought to himself, forcing his limbs to unlock and move forward. But he knew it was too late.

"Kakashi!" he screamed, desperately trying to close the distance. "Get out of the way!"

Kakashi turned, wide-eyed very much aware now—the last expression he'd ever see on his teammate's face—and Obito swore he saw the silver-haired boy's eye lift up in a small smile.

_No_. His heart thud against his heavy chest, as he collided with his friend's body, trying to push him out of the wreckage. But Kakashi, with more strength than Obito had expected him to have at that point, pushed him away.

Obito's back met the ground, painfully, the pebbles and jagged rocks digging into his skin. He stared at the rocky ceiling, choking and he probably would've just laid there and stare if not for Rin's scream.

He rolled into a crouch, body tensed, his Sharingan spinning.

He spotted Rin easily and he scrambled towards his friend. He was about to call her name when he saw what had made her scream. He nearly screamed.

It was Kakashi's body. It had to be.

But half of the masked-boy's face was already crushed along with the rest of his right side. Obito was used to gruesome deaths but this gruesome death was that of his teammate, hisfriend.

He'd been nothing but a nuisance to Kakashi... if only he had listened to Kakashi... if only he had died instead... if only—

"You..." a weak, raspy voice came from beneath the boulder. Obito blinked away the tears, letting them slid down his cheeks, to see his dying teammate more clearly. His lone grey eye locked onto Obito's Sharingan. "You are such a... fucking burden... Obito."

He sobbed.

"Always... whining... late... and to top it all off, a crybaby..." Obito was sure he was crying harder than ever in his life when he heard Kakashi say those words, but there was no malice or cruelty or anything condescending in his voice. "...but I wouldn't have it another way..."

Obito's eyes widened.

Weakly, Kakashi raised his arm, the one not crushed and was holding something in a death-grip. Rin, very gently and sobbing herself, clutched his hand, peeling his fingers from the dagger.

"My father's... pride..." he murmured, his grey eye that had life was dulling and fading. "...I want you to have it..." His gaze was fixed on Obito's face, which meant that the dagger was his?

Even when dying, there was still a fiery challenging look in his eye.

"Think... you can handle it... crybaby?"

His fingers clenched around Kakashi's.

"Don't... make the same mistakes... my father did..." he struggled, lips parting and closing from behind his mask as he tried to speak, but despite his efforts, his voice faded.

The hand in his own went slack and when he only saw the white of his friend's eye, he knew he had lost a precious comrade.

Within their sockets, his eyes burned, more so than the tearing and rip in his heart. Rin's cries and sobs filled his ears, as she begged, through broken and intangible words for Kakashi to wake up and that she _loved_ him. She turned to him, puffy-eyed with anger and hatred and anguish written on her face.

"This is all your fault!" she screamed, her face and voice distorted. "If you hadn't rushed in mindlessly—!"

_Yesyesyes_**yes**—it was all his fault.

He might as well slit Kakashi's throat.

He screamed.

His eyes bled rivulets of blood.

The commotion drew the attention of the Iwa-nin—and by Kami, he hated them—he just wished that they would—

"Burn..." The name of a technique he'd never learned was at the tip of his tongue. Hate seeped into every pore of his being. Anguish and the pain of losing a precious comrade—all because of him— "**Amaterasu**!"

Jet-black flames, like a flock of crows, spewed from Obito's right eye. He screamed in pain, feeling the skin in his right side corrode due to his lack of control _but what was he supposed to control?_

Screams became the cacophony of sounds in Obito's pitch-black world. His hand covered his face, trying to repress the burning of his skin but despite the pain, he still saw his enemies burning, in even more physical pain than him and he laughed.

Obito laughed till tears ran down his cheeks, till the crystal salty liquid turned into blood.

His enemies burned, he chased them down, regardless of Rin's scream of horror and Minato-sensei's yell of warning.

_Burn_burn**_burn_**—

All those who killed Kakashi, had a hand in his death—**b**u**r**n.

_but, hey, does that mean he had to burn himself too?_

The Kannabi Bridge crumbled, burning for seven days and nights.

Obito had massacred the entire army, it was the end of the war.

Yet, the pain still remained.

**xXx**

It was fucking ironic.

Now that he had the Sharingan—not just any Sharingan, but the Mangekyou!—he was still shunned, still a different sort of Uchiha from his kin.

He was no longer the dead-last, disgrace Uchiha, no longer the lowest of the low.

He was the greatest and strongest Uchiha since Uchiha Madara—even though he still need loads of training to bring his eyes under control and improve his other skills—and could easily best the clan head.

He was now the pride and symbol of everything the Uchiha had ever stood for: power.

Yet, he was still an outcast.

(No one quite looked at him the same way his little, baby brother, Shisui did.)

_Why?_

Oh, that's right.

He was the demon who had slaughtered an army, single-handedly.

They may look up to him in awe and aspire to get the same power, but that did not mean they did not fear him.

He laughed at the irony of it all.

He was finally strong, had gained the recognition he craved for, but he was still an outcast.

Such power... what difference had it made?

**xXx**

Not for the first time, Obito found himself running to save someone.

This time however, was not just a mere someone. It was Rin.

Once upon a time, as the gullible, dead-last Uchiha, Obito had been in love with Rin. Once, anyway.

Gaining the Mangekyou and having to spend time to train it and use it to its full power, he had distanced himself from everyone but Minato-sensei and Fugaku (and Mikoto-san who came to them with food whenever they took a break) who helped him train. He had to bring his emotions under control too—getting too upset, crying or being angered would drive his Mangekyou out of control.

He hadn't seen Rin in months and when he finally did hear from her, it was about a kidnapping. She had been on a mission with another team as her current team was out of commission, and an Uchiha messenger had busted in and informed Minato-sensei.

Obito felt torn between going and not going.

Going because he felt like saving his past object of affections. Not going because he had no say, Kakashi wouldn't have left until given permission no matter how worried he may be.

"Where?" Fugaku demanded, eyes narrowed.

"The north road from Kiri to Konoha!" the Uchiha replied, his eyes flickering red.

"Obito, _go_!"

Obito did, he closed his eyes and concentrated, reaching towards the other dimension and when he felt his body tingle, he knew he was no longer in Konoha's training ground. He spread his senses afar. He had been there before, this should be fairly easy.

"Rin!"

"Obito..."

And for the first time in months, Rin smiled at Obito. She felt guilty for distancing herself from him. She couldn't help it and felt slightly ashamed. But it was human nature to fear the unknown and with how Obito was lately, he might as well have drop from outer space!

Rin's smile was painful as was how her chest simmered with emotion.

The right side of Obito's face was scarred from the out of control of Amaterasu—the medics had tried patching his skin but it still left scars—and his face lacked the usual grin when he spoke to her. It was blank and expressionless, just like Kakashi's.

_Is this how you mourn and remember our friend, Obito? By copying the mannerism of Kakashi?_

Rin closed her eyes in anguish.

"Obito, I'm so sorry about the words I'd said to you, when Kakashi was crushed under the boulders," she choked on her own words, trying to blink the tears away from her eyes, she gazed at Obito. The Uchiha stared back blankly, it unnerved Rin and tore another wound in her heart. "I just want you to know that... hiding your wounds, your pain—both physical and metaphorical—won't do you any good. I want to look after you, to make sure you don't do anything so stupid again but..."

She laughed, slightly hysterical.

"...I don't think I can do that anymore."

"Why?" he asked, sounding so much like a child who'd lost his way and in a way, he was lost.

Rin wanted to help him, wanted to reach out towards him and pull him out of the abyss he was trapped in. She wanted to take him higher, to where he deserved to be.

"I'm a Jinchuriki, Obito, and the Kiri-nins plan on leaving me in Konoha where the seal will break. The four-tailed beast will be free and our village will be in ruins." Tears flowed down her cheeks, she reached out a hand towards her friend. "So... Obito, please, kill me."

His eyes widened, and Rin knew there was hope for him yet. There was still a sliver of the Obito she knew there.

She hated herself for forcing him to do this.

"Please. I don't want to play a part in destroying my village, my beloved Konoha, so please—"

"_Rin_—" Her name on his lips was a plea in itself; desperate and hopeless and lost.

Only one statement would stand a chance to convince him.

"Kakashi wouldn't have hesitated."

Obito tensed. Their eyes met and the unspoken words seemed to flow to one another's mind just like that.

His hand crackled with electricity, signaling the start of Chidori—Kakashi's original jutsu,

"I'm sorry, Rin."

Rin smiled and her world bled to red, pain and blood.

**xXx**

Over Obito's right shoulder, there was one huge, self-inflicted wound which turned into an ugly scar.

By no means was he a masochist, nor was he suicidal; he did not do it to make himself cooler, like his past-self would've thought to do even though he hated pain.

The large, lone gash was the reminder of one of his greatest failure: Kakashi.

He'd failed to save Kakashi and the pain and the scar would remain with him. Every time he looked into the mirror, he saw the scar, he saw Kakashi's death and he promised himself, he would do better, be a greater shinobi so he wouldn't have more scars like those.

It didn't go as well as he'd hoped, naturally.

On the twelfth of June, he took a kunai and stabbed himself, drawing it out long and hard.

He made the gash longer than the first: a reminder of his first love, Rin.

But this was worse than Kakashi, Rin was a girl who'd supported him and he loved her. And, unlike, Kakashi's death which he had a part in indirectly, he killed Rin with his own hands.

Direct cause of deaths of his friends was a longer gash, more pain inflicted to remind himself of his failure.

He stared at the two gashes of different length in the mirror, and once again, promised that he would do better and he wouldn't let anymore of his precious people die.

On October tenth, Obito, tired and dazed and anguished, stumbled to the mirror, ripping his shirt off his chest, staring at the two gashes, regretting having to add a new and third gash.

The third gash was longer than Kakashi's gash, but shorter than Rin's.

Because he was indirectly related to Minato-sensei's death (_if only he'd been faster—_) but the man had been precious, being a father in place of his deceased father.

He was family and he took care of Obito when his own mother could barely care less for her failure of a son.

Obito flicked the bloodied kunai away, stared at the new and bleeding scar before he turned and stumbled his way to the shower.

Tomorrow was going to be hell.

**xXx**

Childish and innocent, Minato-sensei's son ran a finger through his bare chest, his touch left tingles on his skin where the three scars were..

"Ne, Obito-san, doesn't it hurt?"

Wide, large blue eyes stared up at him from where the child was seated on his lap. He hesitated, what do you tell a child about your own mistakes?

"No," he eventually replied and it was not a lie. "It does not."

He took the child's hand, moving it to where his heart was. Menma tilted his head to the side in confusion, eyes like Minato-sensei's curious and smart.

"Huh?"

"This here," he pressed the child's hand harder onto his chest. "it hurts here. Not there."

Menma shook his head, confused.

"I don't understand," he said.

_I hope you never will._

**xXx**

* * *

**Author's Note:** Might be a series of one-shots, might be a multi-chap story. Your thoughts?


End file.
